This July 4th I decided not to attend the city fireworks show like I did last year. I wanted to get a different perspective this time and from two locations. The first location was in my front yard about 25 feet from the house. I set up a pair of MKH-8040 microphones in ORTF at 90 degrees. This location is 5 miles from the city fireworks display at an elevation of 2200 feet. The second location was a few hundred yards behind the house up on the mountain at an elevation of 2700 feet. I used a MKH8040ST setup set at XY 90 degrees.

I got the house MKH-8040 microphones recording with a SD-702 recorder and proceeded to drive up the road and setup the MKH-8040ST rig on a dirt road that was open to the fireworks display with no obstructions. I took video of the show but the camera does not record well at night but the view with all the fireworks going off around the lake was breathtaking. There were dozens of fairly large fireworks displays happening everywhere. To my surprise, the city fireworks could barely be heard from this location and down below at the house the show was just OK sounding. I did notice the wind pattern moving in a South direction and maybe that was the reason the fireworks were so faint sounding. The fun began after the main show.

TWO MKH-8040 Microphones in ORTF at 90 degrees

About a half mile down my street someone started to put on a big show. From my view on the mountain at 2700 feet I could see all the boats heading toward this location and most of the other fireworks around the lake stopped while this show went on. This was a private fireworks display that must of cost some big bucks. The show was 25 minutes long and there were some great booms. The recordings you hear on the blog are from the last part of the show. The fireworks may not have been as big or shot up as high as the city show but the sound was more impressive. Enjoy! -Frank

TWO MKH-8040 Microphones in XY at 90 degrees

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It seems like your night went a lot like mine! I went out searching randomly for people setting off fireworks – specifically, I was looking for distant perspectives. I’ll have to post some of what I got today or tomorrow.